Earning a Living with Your Blogging Knowledge: Part Two
Yesterday in part one of this series, I talked about the opportunities out there for bloggers who are willing to share and apply their experience in blogging with businesses that are looking to set up blogs.
Today we’ll explore ways that you can connect with potential clients and package your services to increase the dollar value of your offering.
First, if you’re working with the business client, it’s important to understand the difference between personal blogging and business blogging. Business blogging doesn’t have to be dry and devoid of personality – quite the contrary. It’s just different. For an extremely informative overview of business blogging best practices, check out this interview I did with the Lonely Marketer’s Pat Schraber.
Identifying the Right Client
The right client isn’t anyone who will pay money. The right client is someone who can actually benefit from having a blog. They must be willing to:
- Allow personalities to step out from behind the corporate “veilâ€
- Understand that the business impact of a blog is not necessarily measured in the same way as other types of “advertising.†(See the interview with Pat)
- Commit at a significant amount of time to blogging or be willing to spend money to pay someone to help write posts and manage the blog
- Be willing to post regularly or approve posts regularly and timely
- Reply to comments on a consistent basis or assign a person within the company to reply to comments.
- Have a desire to connect with their customer
- Want to blog for more reasons that just driving traffic to their website (some may argue this, but that’s my opinion. Most corporate clients originally say they want a blog for this purpose and it’s important to explain that this is NOT maximizing the usefulness of a blog. If this were the only goal, their money would be better spent on AdWords)
How to Find Potential Clients
Most business owners have heard of blogging and have heard of how it can improve a company’s online presence. The thing with blogging however, is that most people don’t really know WHAT it is – just that it’s something everyone seems to be doing. They don’t know how exactly it can help their business; they just know that it can.
The problem with this is that most small and midsized business owners aren’t out there posting jobs on freelance boards to find someone to start a blog – even if they are receptive to starting a blog. Because they’re probably not going to come right out and tell you that they want a blog, you’ve got to look for the signs that a company might be receptive to blogging.
Some of these signs may be:
- Posting jobs on freelance boards for search engine optimization
- Any business that is using AdWords so is obviously spending money on some form of marketing campaign
- A small business owner who actively participates in online forums
Approaching Potential Clients
I have personally found that a very short and simple text email sent to TARGETED individuals that informs them of my service, works the best. I grew my entire freelance business using only this free method of connecting with people.
The keyword here is TARGETED. Don’t send spam mail. (That’s not legal) Don’t send something that sounds like an advertisement. Make it personal. Get to the point. Give them enough information. Don’t make it a pitch. Let them contact you for more information.
This email shouldn’t be an infomercial, it should be a way to find the people who ALREADY need what you have to offer and just hadn’t gotten around to asking or finding a person do it already.
Part Three
Tomorrows post will talk about how to package your services to increase the dollar value of your offering.
Share Your Experience
What hurdles have you encountered when setting up a blog for another person or company? What other ways might indicate that a company is receptive to blogging and willing to invest in getting a blog up and running? What are some other characteristics of ideal clients?
Christine,
This is a really nice series you’re putting together! You’re doing a great job of touching on the business side of blogging. I think in two years the whole environment around blogging will become so much more familiar to people. Now is the time to start thinking about how to approach potential customers.
Pat
I completely agree with you. Blogging is fast becoming a standard tool of business though I think we are the very beginning of this trend. Thanks Pat!
i really like a point you made in this post when you talk about the why behind a company needing/wanting the blog. choose a reason for the blog and stick with it. i really believe that consistency is one of the easier ways to retain readers. more than once, i’ve thought i should do something different with my blog, but in the end, i’ve always decided against it. it’s a journal and the point is for others thinking of starting a life as an entrepreneur to see what it’s really like on a day-to-day basis. great series, christine!
I have a business blog, a personal blog, and many other blogs and I have to say that you hit it right on the nail. The series that you are putting together, is wonderful and it will probably help a lot of people. I wish that more bloggers would do tutorial series to help people, it might make my life a little easier.
Again Christine, this series is Awesome!!!
I agree with Pat. We are still at the very beginning of this trend. I am still explaining what a blog is to about 90% of business owners I am speaking with. This makes it for a very long closing period.
hi i enjoyed the read
That is the tough part of a blog! I try to think of it like a magazine where topics might not always be the same, but they would appeal to the target audience.
BTW, I really love your online documentary of your trials and tribulations of starting a business!
Thanks Gaje! I hope that this does help people realize that their blogging skills can be quite profitable.
I hear ya Joe! Most businesses don’t understand how a blog can work for them at all. However, I’ve found that they are appreciative and even more excited when you explain how blogging can really help them to engage with their customers and potential customers. Have you noticed this as well?
Thank you Eve!